Owned one years ago and figured I'll eventually get another some day, but after watching this video and seeing how complicated and buried the parts are, I'm now leaning towards no, hell no. At least not for long term ownership.
atikovi
I've been working on medium, and now on heavy duty, diesels for over 20 years, and I still have not developed an impulse to own one personally.
Just a guess here but, maybe that's one way to get as much torque as possible from the least displacement..
400cc to 500cc is the ideal size for a cylinder from a combustion efficiency point of view hence VW decision for a V10. The V10 traced its heritage back to the Audi Le Mans racing diesels hence the complex gear driven ancillaries design which is typical of race engines where you are seeking maximum reliability at high TPM for exptended periods . The later 4.2L V8 TDI produced more power and torque with a more conventional and easier to maintain chain driven cams and belt driven ancillaries design.
There are many, many, many reasons. Look up and source the Bosch automotive handbook for starters and browse its 2000+ pgs to get an understanding of how and why things are done with vehicle design.
Ofcourse a v10tdi is cool.... but everything is when it's 100% working. When crap goes wrong and you need to pay 13hrs labor to pull the engine\tranny for access before you've even replaced or fixed anything, the perspective will quickly change.
Wait, you guys are saying a 20 year old German V10 with twin turbos is difficult to maintain? Can’t be.
What’s the big deal with the hatch struts? It took me all of 15 minutes and I was standing upright in broad daylight, not contorting my body into a painful position while nasty liquids drop on me like the majority of car repairs.
If anyone asking such silly questions is anything of an enthusiast (which we all claim to be, otherwise we wouldn't be on car forums), they should already know the answer.... this has been sorted out 2 decades ago, and has been covered many times since.
I had long dreamed of a v10 TDI and picked one up a few months ago. I had given up on a finding a working v10 and was looking for a v8 when I stumbled on one that had a full AYH motor with turbos and accessories swapped in from Cascade German. It a 2004 pre DPF which is awesome too.
When I bought it, the new motor only had 1000 miles on it. I have since put another 4k miles on after putting the correct oil in it. We will see how my cams wear over time.
I am down in SoCal and the car was up in Seattle… I grabbed a one way ticket, my VCDS, and went to check it out.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The car had about 4 inches of water in the spare tire well, headliner all torn up, blinking glow plug light, check engine light and an airbag light. I spend a few hours scanning, clearing and driving over and over to find the codes that stuck and decided to buy it even though the PO told me about none of these issue before I flew up there and was unwilling to drop the price at all. He played dumb in person like he never saw these issues 🤦♂️. All good, I was happy to save her from this owner and giver her a good home. Also just that new motor was worth what I paid, even if I needed to swap it into a different car or part it out.
Found too many issue to list here but pulling the headliner 3 to solve those leak sunroof drains was fun.
She has been fault code free for the past 3500 miles and drives like a dream. With only 5k miles on the motor. I can see this thing being around for a few more years 🤘
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When I bought it, the new motor only had 1000 miles on it. I have since put another 4k miles on after putting the correct oil in it. We will see how my cams wear over time.
I am down in SoCal and the car was up in Seattle… I grabbed a one way ticket, my VCDS, and went to check it out.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows. The car had about 4 inches of water in the spare tire well, headliner all torn up, blinking glow plug light, check engine light and an airbag light. I spend a few hours scanning, clearing and driving over and over to find the codes that stuck and decided to buy it even though the PO told me about none of these issue before I flew up there and was unwilling to drop the price at all. He played dumb in person like he never saw these issues 🤦♂️. All good, I was happy to save her from this owner and giver her a good home. Also just that new motor was worth what I paid, even if I needed to swap it into a different car or part it out.
Found too many issue to list here but pulling the headliner 3 to solve those leak sunroof drains was fun.
She has been fault code free for the past 3500 miles and drives like a dream. With only 5k miles on the motor. I can see this thing being around for a few more years 🤘
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